Deep in the west of the sprawling heart of Western Australia, in the council with more councillors per resident than any other, September's opening of the new Ballinyoo Bridge was an historic occasion.
At a long table 75 guests - and another dozen blow-ins - enjoyed a glass of wine or stubby of beer to celebrate the much-awaited new span across the Murchison River.
It was an impressive turnout given the entire council area is home to just 113.
Murchison Shire is run by six councillors - more than one for every 20 residents.
Shire President Mark Halleen described the bridge's opening as a “great day” for the community, with "a big chat, a good feed and a few drinks”.
But as New South Wales wrestles with council amalgamations, the form and function of Australia's local governments have been dragged into the spotlight.
Guests enjoy lunch at the opening of the new Ballinyoo Bridge in Western Australia, September 2016. Source: Nick Covelli
And at the opening of $5.5 million bridge in Australia’s most malproportioned council, the payers of rates and taxes in Australia are entitled to ask whether they are getting a good deal.
A question of strength
Starting in the 1840s, colonial parliaments began to hand over responsibility for local issues to councils. Today these issues are mainly local roads, development regulation, garbage, and community services such as parks and libraries.
In recent decades state governments have sought to regain control, squeezing local government with amalgamations. Former Premier Jeff Kennett cut the number of council areas in Victoria by almost two thirds in the 1990s. Similar attempts have been made elsewhere since then, most recently in Western Australia and New South Wales.
In NSW, Premier Mike Baird pitched his reforms as creating “stronger and more efficient councils” that would enable more spending on local projects.
"Reducing waste and red tape through local government mergers could free up close to $2 billion over the next 20 years, allowing councils to fund better services and new infrastructure for communities or lower rates,” he said in May. Twenty new councils have been created and 11 more proposals are pending.
Those councillors that have been forced out, along with their supporters, have expressed their displeasure. This was most vivid when Sydney student Nicky Minus spat on the administrator appointed to manage the new Inner West Council at a fiery meeting in May.
The changes were the result of a long process of supposedly independent review. The review’s 2013 report stretched to more than 1,000 pages, with analysis of revenue, population density and debt, and a ranking all 152 councils in 14 difference statistical categories to find commonalities.
However the government’s expert adviser on council reform, Professor Graham Sansom, said the amalgamation plan ultimately pursued by the government "fails the test of carefully structured strategic reform” when much of this work was ignored.
"It looks like a bit of a grab bag of some changes that are close to what we suggested and make a lot of sense and other changes which I find extremely hard to understand what on earth they are meant to achieve other than presumably some political objective,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald at the time.
The vast majority of councils in Australia have either 5,000 residents or an area of 500 square kilometres. Those that have neither are mostly based around isolated towns, Aboriginal settlements or islands.
The only councils in the list of outliers not in remote areas are Peppermint Grove in Perth and the Borough of Queenscliffe in Victoria. The councillors in Queenscliffe were the only ones in the state not dismissed under the Kennett reforms in the 1990s and the area has been the subject of recent amalgamation discussions. Peppermint Grove Council was a vocal opponent of the plans for amalgamation in Western Australia which would have seen it merge with four other councils.
None of the councils in NSW that existed prior to amalgamations come close to the scale of either Peppermint Grove or Queensliffe. The closest council that did was Deniliquin, with a population of about 7,500 and an area of 150 square kilometres. It has merged with Conargo Shire to form the Edward River Council.
At home in Murchison
President Halleen has heard the criticism many times before.
As a group, the councillors of Murchison Shire are paid around $100,000 per year, mostly in travel allowance, and two of the council's five office staff are on salaries of more than $100,000. With so few ratepayers, it needs funds from state and federal government to operate.
Despite the reliance on outside funding, Mr Halleen argues that the six councillors and five office staff administer the council’s core services of roads, rubbish and collecting rates more cheaply than could be done under any other arrangement.
"To keep the standard up on these roads - it’s not only grading the bloody things, it’s realigning, it’s boxing out", he said. "It’s not just a five minute job, it’s a continual rotation.”
Local government outposts representing few electors like Murchison Shire are easy targets for local government reform. But as metropolitan councils such as Geelong in Victoria or Glenorchy in Tasmania fall into administration, Murchison Shire appears functional. The budget is healthy, meeting minutes are prepared and published promptly, and it has successfully worked with state and federal governments to construct the new bridge.
Murchison Shire, the council with more councillors per resident than any other, in white. Source: Mapbox
Mr Halleen argues if his council was amalgamated with a neighbour, the first thing people would notice would be the disrepair of critical transport links and he makes the point that for residents these roads can be a matter of life and death. Without any local health services, Murchison locals face a three-hour drive to the nearest hospital.
A streamlined model
The tension between state and local governments dominate politics in every Australian capital - except one.
ACT minister for local services and transport Meegan Fitzharris is the only politician in Australia with combined responsibility for both local and 'state-level' matters.
She believes local issues resonate with residents more than broader ones, and that her unique position allows her government to build trust in the community in ways that are impossible elsewhere.
"I can both listen to people about the issues they have, and actually - immediately - do something about them," she said.
Ms Fitzharris has just returned from a meeting of transport ministers, and she recounted that they believed her government enjoyed an advantage over the traditional state model.
"Many of my (interstate) colleagues often have to work very closely with multiple councils for approvals to do large scale projects like light rail and integrating light rail with buses," she said. "Here you’ve got the ability to integrate them."
She also believes the ACT government is able to be more "nimble", and can offer investors and businesses considering establishing themselves in Canberra a more streamlined experience that reduces red tape.
"I can both listen to people about the issues they have, and actually - immediately - do something about them."
The uneasy truce
Resistance to the NSW amalgamations has been strong. The NSW state by-election loss for the Nationals in Orange has been partly blamed on the backlash to reforms and many other councils are challenging the decision in the court - with some reportedly being prepared to appeal to the High Court in a bid to win the right to continue.
At this stage, and despite the result in the Orange by-election, Premier Baird is pushing on. But WA Premier Colin Barnett abandoned the merger plans in 2015. At the time, he said he didn't believe local government was capable of reform.
In WA, Mr Halleen is still anxious about his council’s future if the state government is given more control over local government finance, much of which is currently prescribed for use in specific regions by the federal government.
"What we’re a bit concerned about, is if that (federal) money goes to the state government without it being tagged for our local government, that will be a huge issue because it will all go into the city onto the bitumen roads and the highways,” he said.
In the meantime, Murchison Shire is planning for its future. Forecasts for the area predict a relative boom to the council’s population by 2026 to 140 residents, fuelled by the development of the Square-Kilometre Array project which is located on Mr Halleen’s property. The growth is noted in a review of the voting system to address a disparity between two wards - 39 electors compared with 67.
Local resident Helen Broad with Council President Mark Halleen at the opening of the new Ballinyoo Bridge, WA. (Nick Covelli) Source: Nick Covelli
But the threats to Australia’s most over-represented council are never far away. As the report notes, “it’s important that all strategies and actions target the retention of the local population".
